While many members of the legislature were overjoyed after prosecutors suggested that police list lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) as a hoodlum, Lo, nevertheless, still has at least one resolute supporter.
Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大), a judge-turned-lawmaker and convener of the New Party, criticized "procedural flaws" in the handling of the case by prosecutors who she believes infringed upon the jurisdiction of the police.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
Hsieh has also criticized President Chen Shui-bian (
Some of Hsieh's colleagues in the legislature said her support is intended to reciprocate help from a friend who has helped her pass a number of pieces of legislation in the Judiciary Committee, but she insists she is simply acting in accordance with justice.
Levy Ying (營志宏), another New Party legislator, described Hsieh as a person with a strong inclination to be a champion of the oppressed and who never tries to conceal feelings of love or hate.
"When everybody thinks that a certain person is wicked to the bone and hates him in the extreme, she often holds a different view and thinks that there is some merit to this person," Ying said.
Hsieh had been a teacher for 10 years and then a judge for 10 years before becoming a lawmaker in 1993 at the age of 44.
She gained fame in 1989 for throwing her support behind prosecutor Kao Hsin-wu (
Hsieh has never hesitated to involve herself in controversial issues.
During the run-up to last year's presidential election, for example, Hsieh stood up for KMT maverick James Soong (
And yet, Hsieh was unrestrained in her disdain for Soong after scores of New Party politicians defected over the past year to the People First Party -- founded by Soong.
She then publicly accused Soong of being ungrateful for poaching the New Party for talent and for pushing her party to the brink of extinction.
"I defended Soong during the presidential race because I couldn't stand the way in which Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) used the state machine to suppress a certain candidate.
"If a political party or individual disrupts the unity of the opposition alliance for its own interests, it sins as well," Hsieh said in explanation of her behavior, which often appears rather emotional in the eyes of the public.
Hsieh's devotion to legislation concerning judicial reform and women's rights won her a good reputation, but her uncompromising personality has also earned her many legislative enemies.
There have been numerous cases in which Hsieh resorted to extremes to paralyze a legislative meeting to force the support of other lawmakers for her pet legislative causes, and she never hesitates to filibuster legislation she believes should be delayed.
The most recent case took place on Friday, when Hsieh blocked three pieces of legislation related to the pay and benefit systems for the head of state, politically-appointed officials and lawmakers due to her suspicion that the bills were intended to hike their pay.
Some lawmakers were quick to come out and criticize Hsieh for her "split personality," pointing out that Hsieh had agreed to endorse the bills during inter-party negotiations.
"Her fighting spirit for legislation is commendable, but it is quite irrational for her to block legislation emotionally," said DPP legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯).
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS